Nicolas_Fricker

Eat sleep Lift Repeat Nicolas Fricker 1

Table of Contents 1. Introduction 2. Foreword 3. Physical Conditioning 4. Motivation 5. Mental Conditioning and Balance 6. Nutrition 7. Work Cited

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Introduction Bodybuilding is a sport based on progression of one’s self mentally and physically. It is very time consuming but worthwhile for the tremendous results. Most people find it challenging to constantly keep going to the gym five times a week, preparing nutritious meals, and also making sure to attain their calorie goal. What helps with keeping that motivation is a motivated partner who refuel your energy to do what you have to do even though you don’t feel like doing it. They also challenge you and reminds you why you are doing this.

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Bodybuilding totally changes the way you live, it also can change your tastes for certain music, it also it pushes you to do research and educate yourself about your body. If taken seriously, you will become more accountable. You won’t have to think about your diet because you unconsciously will want fresh healthy food. In this case knowing how many hours of sleep is necessary to recover, you will see yourself going earlier and earlier to bed. The advantages of regular weight lifting can outweigh any other exercises’ routine. Weightlifting promotes overall physical conditioning, mental balance and healthy nutrition that a weightlifter can sustain over a lifetime. For instance, at my gym, an eighty years old man we call Santa Claus, because of his white beard, can bench press for hundred pounds. So, weightlifting is a strategy for a good way to live my life.

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Foreword When i was ten, I was very skinny tall with long spaghetti arms. I could eat as much as a grown man i would not gain any weight. Bodybuilding was presented to me as a form of torture to become humongous, a monster, but it was always hand in hand with performing enhancement drugs. This made me take weightlifting out of consideration. I was involved with sports but i was growing as fast as my teammates, whom were already bigger than me. It seemed impossible, i blamed it all on my genetics. Later when given the opportunity to workout in a gym with real weights, I embraced the idea of being able to build muscle without having to do long intense workouts. Since i had started with light workouts, i had been able to become more defined and add a barely noticeable amount of muscles. It still took too much time to add on mass while everyone around me was still growing becoming bigger, stronger and faster.

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Only then i realized that to accomplish extreme changes in your body’s physique, you need to workout intensively, pushing yourself to your limits, also fueling your body with a nutritious and balanced diet. Only then i was able to see major differences. Having that bodybuilder’s mindset, really helped me become more in charge, productive, and in control of my time. Everything had to be timed and ready to be executed.

Converting into that state of mind was probably one of the biggest challenges i had to get over to body build. Keeping up the motivation to go to the gym at 5:30 in the morning, cook up 7 meals in a day, count all the calories day after day, getting enough sleep.

I want to give a shout out to Brian G., my training partner, who helped me stay on track even when i didn’t have the energy. He always came up with ways to make going to the gym everyday fun, making the time spend in the gym more enjoyable.

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PHysical Conditioning All athletes choose a way to exercise. Some prefer being outdoors and others prefer not having any distractions and exercise in a closed facility. For example, most people would prefer to go run in a park instead of on a treadmill in the corner of a gym. There are many reasons why athletes would prefer an outside run. One of them would be being out in nature breathing fresh air. Another reason would be reaching a physical goal, not just seeing the mile sign on a little screen; actually getting to a distant location under a certain amount of time will bring you satisfaction of accomplishment.

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The road not being flat the whole time will create a sense of adventure, this will also make the run less boring. On the other hand, weightlifting in a room is free from distraction.

When having to lift some heavy weights, your mind needs to be fully focused on mind-muscle connection. Mind-muscle connection is crucial because it uses mental strength with your physical strength to push or pull weights way heavier than your body could normally sustain. It is unlike running, which is a rhythm base exercise where you do not need to pay much attention to, because it will come naturally one foot after the other.

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Motivation For beginners, bodybuilding tends to be more disappointing when you don’t see the progress right away. They do know that endurance takes a little bit more time so they put in the time and effort and do see the progress, but they don’t know that if they were to educate themselves about hypertrophy or strength training, they would be able to see more progress than when training for endurance, especially for the first couple months, because that is when the body responds the fastest. When exercising, the hardest part is not to slack off. Many things can come in your way, having fun with friends when you could be at the gym, eating unhealthy because it tastes good, losing your motivation when reaching a plateau. One of the good things about working out inside is that you can workout at any time of day with any weather.

On a rainy day or a day too hot to go outside and exercise can hold you back on your gains. To help prevent slacking off you will need an outside source of energy to push yourself to keep going.

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Having a motivated partner helped stay on track, and also encourages you to keep going forward. They are also very useful while trying to push yourself to progress, they can give you a spot, which means having someone be paying attention while you are working with the weight, so when you are tiring up, they will be there to help you and prevent injuries.

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Mental Conditioning and Balance The mind is very powerful and has a lot of power over the body. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Bodybuilding Encyclopedia records this event: “When the going gets tough, it is

always the mind that fails first, not the body. The best example of this I can think of occurred one day when Franco and I were doing Squats in the old Gold’s Gym. Franco got under 500 pounds, squatted down and couldn’t get back up. We grabbed the bar and helped him get it back on the rack. 500 pounds for even one rep was apparently just too much for him that day.

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Just then four or five Italian-American kids from New York City came in. “Wow,” they said, “there’s Franco! Hey, Franco!” They were great fans, and we’re looking forward to watching him work out -- only Franco had just failed in a lift and it seemed probable that he would miss it again on the next try.

I took Franco aside and told him, “Franco, these guys think you’re the king. You can’t get under five hundred pounds again and fail.” All of a sudden his face changed. He looked at me with big eyes, realizing he was on the spot. Then he went out onto the street and spent a while psyching himself up, taking deep breaths and concentrating on the lift. He stalked back into the gym, grabbed the bar, and, instead of the six reps he was supposed to do with 500 pounds, he did eight! Then he walked away coolly, as if it were nothing.”

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This example shows that the mind is very powerful. It can overcome what was thought impossible. You might think that doing two more reps is probably not that much, but when it come to 500lbs, even one rep is extremely demanding from the muscles, joints and will power.

A lot of this power has to do with meditation, the ability to shut down unnecessary parts of the brain and concentrates all the energy into one section. Once all the other parts of the brain are off, then the bodybuilder can start raging explosively with all his willpower focused on achieving his goal.

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Bodybuilding is an addiction. While training hard, your body will release endorphins. Molecules responsible for increasing the feeling of well being, for the protection against mental illness and for a feeling of relaxation. Endorphins have a similar chemical structure to morphine, naturally relieving pain. In addition to their analgesic effect, they are involved in controlling the body’s response to stress, regulating contractions of the intestinal wall, and determining mood. They may also regulate the release of hormones from the pituitary gland, mainly growth hormone (HGH) and the gonadotropin hormones. Bodybuilding boosts your self-esteem and selfconfidence. The more impressive your physique becomes, the more it will influence yourself and everyone around you.

It changes how you treat people and the way they treat you.

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Traits learned in the gym can be applied to all aspects of life to make everything you do a success! Bodybuilding teaches you to believe in yourself and take pride in what you do.

When you’re in the gym putting you’re all into every set, lift, day shows you that persistence will help you see anything through and that everything is achievable, you just need to train whatever you are trying to accomplish. When you weight lift you have the ability to measure more precisely your progress, not like most running sports where not fully aware of your body’s potential. Also having this reward every time you get a good lift, will help you keep up your motivation. You will grow stronger because you will eventually reach a plateau, where you body gets used to the weight you are lifting. By adding more weight your body will reward you with more endorphin and will have to become bigger, faster, stronger.

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Sleep is fundamental for full recovery of the muscle and mind. While asleep, your body and brain don’t quite shut off. While you rest your brain stays busy, preparing you for the day ahead. Without enough hours of restorative sleep you won’t be able to work, learn, create, and communicate to your full potential.

Regular lacking of sleep leads you to a major mental and physical breakdown.

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The average need of sleep for children from 1-11 years old is 10-12 hrs. Teenagers 12-18 years old need 8.510 hrs of sleep every night, and adults only need 7.5-9 hrs. How much sleep do you need?, an article explaining certain symptoms from lack of sleep:

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• Fatigue, lethargy, and lack of motivation • Moodiness and irritability • Reduced creativity and problem-solving skills • Inability to cope with stress • Reduced immunity; frequent colds and infections • Concentration and memory problems • Weight gain • Impaired motor skills and increased risk of accidents • Difficulty making decisions • Increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems

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All these symptoms are a result of accumulative lack of sleep. They will affect your exercising directly. Prolonging your progress until you have fully recovered from the lack of sleep.

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Nutrition 25

Fast food is unhealthy because most of the calories comes from saturated fat. Fats are very important for the cell’s wall formation, but saturated fats create blockage of the arteries, causing heart attacks. Unsaturated fats are mostly found in nuts, fish, avocados, etc....

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Fats help with the absorption of proteins from foods in the guts, because they are the second slowest form of stored energy. The energy from fat will be used to transfer the protein into the bloodstream. The quickest form of energy is carbohydrate, and the slowest is protein. For example, myself as an ectomorph, I have to eat up to eight thousands calories a day, spread into seven meals with a two to three-hours digestion window. Not easy to do on a regular basis.

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Work Cited

Bodybuilding.com. The Effects of Bodybuilding on The Mind. March 26, 2013. <http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/bbmind.htm >

Melinda Smith, M.A., Lawrence Robinson, Greg Boose and Robert Segal, M.A. How Much Sleep Do You Need? Last updated: January 2013. March 20, 2013. <http:// www.helpguide.org/life/sleeping.htm>

Yunier C. Get Motivated Stay Motivated. Sep 27, 2002. Feb 27, 2013. <http:// www.teenbodybuilding.com/yunier1.htm>

Kris Gethin. 12 Short-Term Motivation Steps For Transformation Success! Jan 12, 2008. Feb 27, 2013. <http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/krisgethin46.htm>

David Robson. The Importance Of Sleep! Apr 02, 2004. March 20, 2013. <http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/drobson5.htm>

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